Wood density holds key to Stradivarius sweet sound LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers using a medical scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good -- it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood.

For the past 300 years, musicians and scientists have puzzled over the unparalleled quality of classical Cremonese violins made by Italian masters like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu...

Working with wood everyday the properties do change over time, there is also a difference in old growth wood and 'new' growth wood and also air dried verses kiln dried. Less to do with the climate than forest density. Trees had to share real estate with more trees than 300-400 years ago, thus they grew slower, straighter, taller and denser than today. Just try to find a 2X18X25 et al (used in colonial floor planking) today, best of luck. It's worth noting that there are larger tracks of trees (at least in the US) than in the 1800's.

I don't know squat about music or violins, but I do know that different woods, different cuts, different grains and the part of the tree (white or heart) all have different sounds.